At the Lake Again

 

This week I walked around the lake again, in the company of good friends. The weather has been sunny, but breezy and not very warm, but perfect for walking. The lake was very still which made for beautiful reflections in the water.

These two Canada Geese were busy with their morning hygiene routine.

Suddenly there was rapid movement on the lake. Thankfully my friend Kris was fast enough to capture a picture of a Red-winged Blackbird and what I think is a Green Heron.

A little bit further down the lake another Canada Goose was swaggering along the dock.

My favorite tree... crooked, of course, and with lots of Poison Oak growing up its trunk.

We thought this tree has a face and looks like a rhino.

Along Fisherman's Trail we saw this beauty, a Black-Crowned Night Heron.

There are so many beautiful places at the lake. We are so very fortunate to have this here.

When we left, the Canada Geese were still busy with preening.

This post's tree and bird faces are for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Sauntering at a Seasonal Lake

Last week I joined Senior Saunters again (I wrote about them here); this time we went to Tolay Lake Regional Park. This is a park that has been open to the public for about ten years now; before that it was only open for the fall festival on two weekends in October of every year, but otherwise the public didn't have access. I have to admit that I hadn't been there since the opening to the public because it is a bit of a trek there. But this time, two friends of mine, who hadn't been there either, and I carpooled down there.

First of all, there was no lake, despite its name. Well, let me rephrase that, there was no lake now. It's a seasonal lake, the season being winter of course, but since we had such a dry March without a single day of rain, the lake was mostly gone. It was still pretty "marshy" and there were a few "canals", but that was pretty much it. However, I think if you're there early in the morning you will see a lot of birds. We saw mainly Red-winged Blackbirds and Violet-green Swallows.

And guess what? There were also dead trees - hurray!

We sauntered along this trail. It's a lovely park, but it almost completely lacks any shade. Last week was perfect weather for our walk, on the cooler side with a rather chilly wind.

There was a lot of teasel by the side of the trail. I love teasel and I couldn't help it, I took tons of pictures of it.

The trees in the background I found rather attractive. I love solitary trees.

We had just passed them and were walking a little bit farther when we saw at the foot of the hill two coyotes. They were too far away for taking pictures, and we simply enjoyed standing there and watching them until they slowly moved away. They certainly weren't in any rush. This was the second time this year that we saw coyotes during our sauntering.

Eventually, we turned around and walked back to the parking lot. I noticed the cows looking for shade under the tree to the left. I hadn't seen them when we came up that way. There are some parks in our county where cows are grazing - another way of wildfire mitigation. They're not quite as ferocious eaters as goats who, beside sheep, are also kept in the parks and other wooded areas for the same purpose.

Collage Papers

 

The last couple of weeks have not been very productive in regards to creativity. But at least I was motivated enough to make some more "collage fodder" - paper. All I needed was a few pages from an old book, some acrylic paints and a handful of stencils.

I spread the paint on the book pages and after they had dried, I added more paint through stencils. 

Gold, silver and white look great on a background painted with Payne's Gray. For the page on the left, I mixed gold and Titan Buff which creates this beautiful muted color. Here's a close-up:

The same mixture I used on the red background.

Of course I had to use my favorite stencil. Here I mixed light portrait pink with titanium white for the stencil color.

All these papers will eventually been torn up and used in some pieces of collage. This is a great way to use up leftover paint - just spread it on a book page (or any kind of paper) and add a little bit more - stencil patterns, marks, stamps, whatever you like - and you have some material for a future piece of art.

This is for Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room.

First Wildflower Walk

 

Two weeks ago a couple friends and I went on a hike in nearby Foothill Regional Park, hoping to see some wildflowers. It was a glorious day - sunny but not hot, perfect for a walk.

This park has a good amount of dead and crooked trees, and you know how much I love these.

It didn't take long until we saw the first tiny wildflowers - Mediterranean Stork's Bill. As the name implies, it's not a native.

Foothill has a few ponds and after a short climb we arrived at the first one.

The unique call of the Red-winged Blackbird was easily heard all around the pond, accompanied by the deep bass of a bullfrog.

We took a shady trail around the second pond where again I was happy to see more dead and crooked trees.

The views of the pond were beautiful.

In October and November 2019, Foothill Park badly burned in the Kincade Fire, a wildfire that caused widespread evacuations throughout Sonoma County and was the largest of the 2019 California wildfire season. There are still numerous burnt trees in the park that now offer a wonderful habitat for all kinds of birds. I've seldom seen so many Acorn Woodpeckers in one place. It is amazing how nature comes back after a natural disaster if we don't mingle and clean everything up.

The Western Fence Lizard certainly felt at home here.

Can you find the turtle?

Hairy Vetch was almost everywhere - it's not a native plant either. It is used as a cover crop and I guess at one time it "escaped" and did its own happy thing, spreading all over the county and beyond. Even though it can be quite invasive, I really like it.

Finally we came upon this meadow of Sky Lupines, a California native. These are my favorite lupines.

Pairing them with our California Poppy is simply fabulous. It was still a bit early for the poppies.

We found a lovely bench under a tree where we stopped and had a little snack while listening to the Red-winged Blackbirds and the bullfrog.

A last view before we returned to the car - it won't stay that green for very much longer.

Here is an AI watercolor rendering of my two friends, so perfectly framed by a tree branch. This is for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Some of you asked about this app. I have a Google Pixel 6a smartphone that I bought because of its excellent camera. When Google introduced its own AI, Gemini, it became available for the photo app as well, and that is what I use.